Teatro Abierto Argentino

   / Open Theater of Argentina

   An arts initiative conceived by a group of Argentine playwrights, actors, and theater folk, Teatro Abierto Argentino resulted in a cycle of 20 one-act plays inaugurated on 28 July 1981 at the Teatro del Picadero in Buenos Aires with the slogan “Vamos a demostrar que existimos” (Let’s show we exist) in response to the abuses perpetrated by the military regime.

   From its inception, Teatro Abierto Argentino was led by Osvaldo Dragún and counted on the collaboration of well-known literary figures such as Aida Bortnik, Roberto Cossa, Griselda Gambaro, Carlos Gorostiza, Ricardo Halac, Ricardo Monti, Eduardo Pavlovsky, and Carlos Somigliana; in all, 21 playwrights collaborated in that first endeavor. Other noted playwrights, such as Eugenio Griffero and Jorge Goldenberg, would later join the collective. In its first season, many public figures provided support, among them the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and the writer Ernesto Sábato, later president of the Comisión Nacional de Investigación de Desaparición de Personas (CONADEP, National Commission on the Disappeared), as did countless theater folk who collaborated in the project without charge and at great personal risk. Among them were 21 directors, including Rubens Correa, Carlos Gandolfo, Jorge Hacker, and Francisco Javier; over 150 actors, including Luis Brandoni, Mirta Busnelli, Carlos Carella, Ulises Dumont, Cipe Lincovsky, Pepe Novoa, Jorge Rivera López, and Pepe Soriano; scores of musicians and composers, including Rodolfo Mederos and Lito Vitale; and costume, stage, and lighting designers, such as Gastón Breyer and Emilio Basaldúa, who since 2006, has been artistic director of the legendary Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In addition, the owners of the 340-seat Teatro del Picadero, located at Rauch Passage, offered the use of the newly remodeled theater without charge.

   Plays were scheduled to run from 28 July to 21 September 1981 in cycles of seven days per play; three plays were staged every afternoon. Opening time was set for 6:30 p.m., early for Buenos Aires theatergoers, so that artists and theater workers could be at their regular theater jobs at more conventional times. While largely ignored at first by authorities, the initial run was a great success. Tickets for all scheduled performances were sold out before opening day. Soon mainstream media such as the daily Clarín reported on the success of the initiative. Major Buenos Aires publications published reviews and interviews with the participants throughout the months preceding and following the inauguration of the cycle. On 6 August 1981 Teatro del Picadero—named after the old criollo term for the earthen ring of early Argentine circuses—was destroyed by arson. Incendiary bombs placed under the stage were determined to have caused the conflagration, although no group assumed responsibility. A press conference held the next day at Teatro Lasalle, packed for the occasion, brought offers of public support from Esquivel and Sábato as well as several artists’ unions, in addition to a telegram, read at the occasion, voicing support from Jorge Luis Borges. Offers of new space came from 17 theater owners in the city, and the collective voted to move the spectacle to the nearby Teatro Tabarís on Corrientes-Buenos Aires’s main commercial theater strip—where Teatro Abierto Argentino completed its run. The new site, with 600 seats, offered nearly three times as much space as the destroyed Teatro del Picadero.

   Over its two months of existence, over 25,000 people stood in long lines to buy tickets—a show of cultural solidarity that represented a dangerous act of defiance against the military regime. The success of Teatro Abierto Argentino 1981 encouraged other acts of cultural resistance throughout Buenos Aires and the provinces, such as Danza Abierta (Open Dance), Folclore Abierto (Open Folklore), Libro Abierto (Open Book), Música Siempre (Music Forever), Poesía Abierta (Open Poetry), and Tango Abierto (Open Tango). The theatrical cycles were repeated in the following years.

   The first cycle of Teatro Abierto Argentino featured the plays El nuevo mundo, by Somigliana (translated in 1997 as New World); Lejana tierra prometida (Distant Promised Land), by Halac; Coronación (Coronation), by Roberto Perinelli; La cortina de abalorios (The Glass-bead Curtain), by Monti; Decir que sí (Saying Yes), by Gambaro; El que me toca es un chancho (Timeout), by Alberto Drago; Criatura (Creature), by Griffero; Tercero incluído, by Pavlovsky (translated in 1997 as Third Person Included); Gris de ausencia, by Cossa (translated in 1997 as Grey Song of Absence); El 16 de octubre (October 16), by Ellio Galipolli; Desconcierto (Disconcert), by Diana Raznovich; Chau, rubia (Bye, Blondie), by Víctor Pronzato; La oca (Chutes and Ladders), by Carlos Pais; El acompañamiento (The Accompaniment), by Gorostiza; Lobo, ¿estás? (Wolf, Are You There?), by Pacho O’Donnell; Papá querido (Dear Dad), by Bortnik; For Export, by Patricio Esteve; Mi obelisco y yo (My Obelisk and I), by Dragún; Cositas mías (Little Things of Mine), by Jorge García Alonso; and Trabajo pesado (Heavy Work), by Máximo Soto. Still another play, Antes de entrar dejen salir (Let Us Out Before You Come In), by Oscar Viale, was written for Teatro Abierto 1981 but not staged at that time.

   The process of selection of that first cycle of Teatro Abierto Argentino reportedly grew out of informal conversations held by playwrights and theater folk in the cafes frequented by the Buenos Aires artistic community. No specific thematic directives were handed to that first group of authors; instead, authors were asked to write dramas that confronted the social reality of Argentina in 1981. Given the political climate, the resulting works often employed indirection and metaphor to comment on society’s responses to the abuses perpetrated by the military junta.

   In 1982, with the military junta under increasing pressure because of the faltering economy and the disastrous invasion of the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas, Teatro Abierto Argentino inaugurated a more ambitious cycle at the Teatro Margarita Xirgu, in San Telmo, and the 19th-century Teatro Odeón, demolished in 1991 to create a parking lot. Critical opinions differ about the success of the second cycle because many of the 50 plays, presented in October and November, were experimental. The second cycle was financed by the sale of the book Teatro abierto 1981, which had a printing of 8,000 volumes and was distributed throughout Latin America.

   In 1983, on the eve of open elections, a street-carnival atmosphere of murgas (bands of street musicians) and parades ushered the return of Teatro Abierto Argentino to the Teatro Margarita Xirgu behind a banner that proclaimed “Por un teatro popular y sin censura” (Toward a popular theater without censorship). Under the slogan “A ganar la calle” (Let’s win the streets), offerings were expanded to include programs dedicated to Nicaragua and Chile, as well as open discussion of the issue of the desaparecidos (missing). This third cycle ran from October to December. Despite positive reviews and lower ticket prices, however, it failed to attract as wide an audience as the previous two.

   In 1985, after a one-year hiatus, Teatro Abierto Argentino returned. This fourth cycle provided an opportunity for new areas of dramatic exploration by nontraditional theater participants such as anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists, as well as theater folk. As a result, the experiences of groups such as marginalized, indigenous urban people, working-class women, and veterans of the Malvinas/Falklands War were examined. The fourth cycle was inaugurated with a 48-hour celebration called El teatrazo (Big Theater). El teatrazo featured theater offerings in conventional places as well as in buses, parks, subways, train stations, and warehouses. In addition, concerts for children and adults were performed, as well as open rehearsals, readings, panels, and classes. The date 21 September 1985 was declared Latin American Theater Day, and the cycle included the participation of invited artists from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.

   Despite the magnitude of the fourth cycle, 1985 marked the end of Teatro Abierto Argentino. The movement would soon be disbanded because of internal conflicts, diminished attendance, and a lack of funding worsened by the country’s growing inflation. On 6 August 2001, on the 20th anniversary of the fire that destroyed the original home of Teatro Abierto Argentino, Teatro del Picadero reopened in Buenos Aires as El Picadero. A commemorative plaque was placed in the theater by the Argentine legislature, although it was later removed and remains missing. Among the first offerings on that occasion was the documentary Teatro abierto, país cerrado (Open Theater, Closed Country), by the filmmaker Arturo Balassa. In this documentary, nearly all of the original participants voiced memories of the event. The economic upheavals of the new century dealt a serious blow to the newly reopened theater, which was eventually closed and scheduled for demolition.

   In December 2007 a group of artists linked to Teatro Abierto Argentino held a demonstration in front of the shuttered theater, demanding that the government save this memorable symbol of Argentine cultural resistance. In January 2008 the Argentine legislature voted to save it. A new theater is scheduled for construction on the site.